In the meantime, here's another low-flier that I liked quite a lot. It's a very dreamy, trippy, heavily-reverbed second album from The Dandelion War called We Were Always Loyal to Lost Causes. (The title struck a chord with me and is probably the main reason the album made it out of the slush pile). It'll remind you a lot of some of the instrumental heavy bands like Explosions in the Sky, but it also has vocals...so I'm gonna say Sigur Ros is the best point of reference, but it's warmer and more personal than that.
Here's what singer Larry Fernandez has to say about the band's name, sound and influences:
"We chose our name based on the obvious extremes...which seemed appropriate for a band that relies so much on contrasting dynamics. There was a time when we considered changing it, but we never found anything we liked better. The phrase was taken from the title of a book by World War II veteran and Oxford graduate Richard Rosenthal. Someday, we'll reach out to Mr. Rosenthal to let him know we exist" says vocalist Larry Fernandez. He continues, "Making this album was a long, slow process. We intentionally went into the studio with unanswered questions about some of the songs. We wanted to experiment with new types of sounds, non-traditional instruments and percussion. We tried things that totally failed and, every now and then, we tried something that was a homerun. The songs tend to be a little slower and quieter than those on our debut Geometries And Orchids, but they show a lot more subtlety, relying on melody, lyrics and instrumentation to convey an emotion. As for the lyrics, they tend to be about challenging situations. The title of the album is a line from Joyce's Ulysses. Showing loyalty to a lost cause means having commitment in the face of hopelessness. On one level, that's sort of a downer, but we also see something redeeming about remaining committed to a lost cause." Guitarist Jeff Kay continues, "Our sound grew out of a common interest in post rock. We love long, epic compositions and huge dynamic swings between ultra quiet and super loud. But by adding vocals and electronics, we've moved away from post rock in a traditional sense. And we don't hide from the fact that we fit into a couple specific genres (ambient, post rock, indie, shoegaze) but at the same time, we believe that we have our own unique sound."Anyway, there's some audio on Soundcloud, check it out.
It's out on now Deep Elm Records
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